If you follow me on Instagram, then you know how I feel about being consistent. It is necessary if you want grow (build muscle, improve your health, and build a strong mindset). It helps you to start building momentum.
I have spoken to a lot of friends, coaches and mentors about creating momentum with our fitness journeys. I know that the word ‘consistent’ can be daunting at times. It’s not easy by any means, but it is a lot simpler than most people think. When we create a new habit, we are building a new routine that we can keep at every day. When we see that the distance between our starting point and where we want to be, we find that distance daunting. That distance is consistency. It is doable. It is simple and you can do it. Here are three ways to be more consistent with your fitness journey.
Create A Schedule To Be Consistent
It is not enough to plan out your workout and meal schedule. It’s just not. You need to know the days and the times that you are going to go to the gym. Plan what you are going to train for those particular days. The same thing applies to your meal schedule. You need to know when you are going to buy the food and what you are going to buy. Also when you are going to cook your meals for the week.
Many of us have calendars or to-do lists and write down what we need to get done for the day. But you actually have to give yourself time to do the training and to cook the food. How many of you have stocked up your fridge with food for the upcoming week but never got round to cooking it? How many of you have packed your gym bag and chosen your playlist but never opened the front door?
Schedule Time For Meal Prep
You have to allot a few hours in your schedule to cook your meals. You need time to prepare the ingredients and cook the meals. Time to portion them out into containers and clean up the kitchen. When it comes to meal prepping, carve out 3 to 4 hours over the weekend. Or (whatever day works best with your lifestyle) to prep your breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks etc. for the week. The key thing is actually schedule it in your planner. Don’t say: ‘I’ll commit to meal prepping one day this week’. Commit to a day and time and write it in your planner. Let people know that you are not free during that time.
Schedule Time For Your Training
The same thing applies to your workout schedule. You need to take into account the time it takes to get to the gym, the time it takes to do your warm up, do your workout, cool down and stretch, and the time it takes you get to your next destination and have a post-workout meal. If you work full time like I do, carve out time to wake up earlier to do a workout before work or schedule time after work to go to the gym. If you are going to the gym in the evening, let people know that you are unavailable during that time. You need to remember that just because you are not working your full time job or freelancing at that time, does not mean that you are available.
Do It Even If You Don’t Feel Like It
Nothing has been more helpful to me than being disciplined and getting out of my own way. Sometimes, you may not feel like doing it. You may feel like you want to sleep in or just be lazy today. Well, you can’t. When you want to be consistent at something, how you feel isn’t an excuse. The most important thing is to rest and recover, if you don’t feel well. Rest & recovery – that is a different conversation for another day. If laziness and/or procrastination is the reason you don’t feel like doing it, you need to get out of your own way and do it.
If you want to be consistent and gain momentum, you cannot rely on motivation. Forget about that word completely. Motivation can be fleeting. You can be motivated today and tomorrow, but be in completely different spaces. Both days have the same end goal, which is to complete that workout or that meal prep session. Being motivated will not get you to that end point, but it is the habits and action steps that you have put in your process that will get further. Be disciplined and do it even if you don’t feel like it. The work you put in each day is a deposit in the person you want to be.
Commit To The Process
A lot of our issues as athletes or gym goers is that we overthink our process. It doesn’t need to be ground-breaking at all. I’m writing a post about consistency here and that’s the thing. Simplicity wins all the time. This post isn’t just for those of you on your fitness journey. It can be applied to everyone who wants to be consistent at something because so many people ask this question: how can I be more consistent?
First of all, commit to the process. You have set two goals that you want to be consistent with a) your workouts and b) your diet. Create a schedule for both goals. You know what days and time you are going to the gym. You have planned what you are going to do at the gym and prepared all your meals for the week.
Create A Process For Your Goals
These goals that you have set have provided you with a direction but they are not the process. The process is the daily habits and the action steps that you do everyday. For example, when you wake up in the morning, what do you do? You brush your teeth, make your bed, drink some water, change into your gym clothes and go to the gym. On the days that you don’t follow those steps, you have to consciously do different steps. Maybe because it could be a rest day or travelling. Those steps that you do is a process, a routine and a system. They are daily, automating habits that keep you consistent and support the goals that you have set
Learn to fall in love with your process, trust your process and enjoy it.
So there you have it! Three ways that you can be more consistent with your fitness journeys. Share this post with friends on Twitter/Pinterest who need tips on consistency. Let me know in the comments below if this was helpful to you. Please share other tips to help you with consistency.
Until next time,
Folakemi
